Stepping in and Becoming Books
Dawn Sadler and Mary Smith
Vancouver, British Columbia
They can catch you.
They can grab you.
They can let you step in.
They can let you jump in.
Then I have to try to push out
And out I come.
—Omid |
BOOKS
There are words in books.
There are pictures in books.
There are people in books.
There are animals in books.
There is me in the book.
—Shirley (Grade One)
|
Once
Upon A Time
It was a stick - a stick
that was just right for smacking a snow-covered tree.
Down fell the snow—plop!—on top of Peter's head!
The
Snowy Day by
Ezra Jack Keats
“I
remember when I was walking in the woods with my
dad and he pulled on a tree branch in front of
me and a huge pile of snow plopped on my head.”
“You
have a dad!!!”
“I
remember when my sister dropped snow on my head.”
“My
brother did that too!”
“This
reminds me of when I was outside I took 5 rocks
and hit them on the tree. Then the snow fell down
on me. It was heavy. It covered my whole body.”
It
is through the making of particular kinds of connections,
such as those between a text and lived experience,
between family relationships and those in a storybook,
that learning and understanding take place. If such
connections are not made, learning and understanding
are increasingly more difficult or non-existent (Anderson
et al, 1985, Day, 1994, Harvey & Goudvis, 2000,
McDonald, Courtland, Golab, & Mallik, 1999, Short,
1993, Steffensen, JoagDev, & Anderson, 1979).
When children understand how to connect the texts they read
to their lives, they begin to make connections between
what they read and the larger world. This nudges
them into thinking about bigger, more expansive issues
beyond their universe of home, school, and neighborhood.
(Harvey and Goudvis, 68)
As
primary teachers, teaching reading has always been
a passion for us. We are both Early Literacy Coordinators
involved in planning and coordinating literacy initiatives
at our school. Understanding how children comprehend
texts has changed over the last century and many
theories have evolved. Two theories we found to be
most prominent and representative of other theories
are the Schema and Transactional Theories. In the
Schema theory, the knowledge we have determines how
and what new knowledge enters our memory. It is the
fitting of new information into prior organized schema,
or prior knowledge that allows for comprehension
(Anderson & Pearson, 1984, Day, 1994, Hartman,
1995).
Transactional
theorists, on the other hand, believe that there
is no single meaning or understanding of text (Rosenblatt,
1985). “Meaning is not found in text, but constructed
by the reader” (Sipe, 2000, 256).
Although
these two theories are distinct entities, they intertwine.
This interconnection reinforces the importance of
prior knowledge, language understanding, reading
skills, cultural background, gender, and personal
preference within the comprehension of text. These,
in turn, are the basis of how readers connect with
text.
Subtext:
Connecting Students with Texts
As
the decision and responsibility of choosing books
for reading programs has shifted from the school
or district level to the individual teacher, the
necessity to understand our students’ background
and interests and to support their reading needs
has become even more important. It is our knowledge
of students that should determine the methods and
materials we use to help our students become proficient
readers. As primary educators, we began to wonder
if the texts we were using in our classrooms were
supporting our students in making these important
connections in their learning. In order to answer
this question, we decided to discover what events,
issues, experiences, and relationships our students
were connecting to during their reading.
Characters
Dawn
teaches Grade One at Oceanview Elementary (the names
of the school and all the students are pseudonyms),
a partially funded inner school in Vancouver. The
school has approximately 350 students from a variety
of ethnic backgrounds where English is not the first
language spoken. There are eleven languages spoken
in the community with Cantonese, English and Vietnamese
being most prevalent.
Dawn’s
Grade One class has twenty-one students with eleven
boys and ten girls. Nineteen of the students have
English as their second language. Their reading and
writing skills range from beginning stages to a Grade
One level.
Mary
teaches Grade Two at Parksview Elementary (names
of the school and all student's names are pseudonyms)
located in a working class neighbourhood in a central
area of Vancouver. The school has approximately 520
students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds with
the majority of students being Asian or Indo-Canadian.
Mary's
class has twenty-three students, eleven girls and
twelve boys. Their reading and writing abilities
range from being at the beginning stages to quite
advanced. Their participation in class and small
group discussions ranged from fairly reluctant to
extremely active.
In
both classes, all students participated in all the
activities but only eight students from each class,
four boys and four girls, who had parental consent
to participate, were randomly chosen to be included
in the study. The eight students were fairly representative
of the make up of each class. All the students were
able to verbally communicate their connections. In
Dawn’s class the students ranged in academic ability.
Seven of the eight students had an ESL designation.
In Mary’s class five of the students had an ESL designation,
four were of Asian descent and two were Indo-Canadian.
All of the students were born in Canada.
Storyline
We
first began by looking at various books that we thought
would cover themes that students at the Grade One and
Two level would connect to. We considered the following:
gender—including non-stereotypical roles—culture, life
experiences, background knowledge, family, and friends.
We also looked at different book styles. We took into
consideration, vocabulary, print type, and illustrations,
especially how the illustrations supported the text,
as well as the style of illustrations. Lastly, we considered
the length of the text. We chose the following nine
books to read with our students.
In
order to see what our students were connecting to
in these stories, we decided to model for our students
how to make connections as well as the types of connections
that could be made. We believe, as Swartz found in
his study with students in a Grade Three, Four and
Five class, that students need a great deal of modeling
and explicit teaching before they are able to express,
especially in the written form, their connections
with literature (Swartz, 1999). We also believe that
good readers select and apply reading strategies
to enhance their comprehension, while poor readers
do not have the same amount of knowledge about how
to select and apply these strategies (Duffy, Roehler,
Meloth, Varus, Putman & Wesselman, 1986).
Both
of us used the book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats to model making a variety of connections,
using self-stick strips, each with our own class.
We focused on text-to-self; text-to-text; and text-to-world
type connections:
Text-to-self—connections that readers make between the
text and their past experiences or background knowledge
Text-to-text—connections that readers make between the
text they are reading and another text, including books,
poems, scripts, songs, or anything that is written
Text-to-world—connections that readers make between the
text and the bigger issues, events, or concerns of society
and the world at large. (Harvey & Goudvis, 2000, 21)
The
teacher first read the story in its entirety. During
the second reading, the teacher placed one of three
self-stick strips on a page where she had made a
connection. After reading the book the second time,
the teacher went through the book discussing the
connections she had made. For example, the teacher
referred to a snowfall that had happened within the
last week, and talked about previously read books,
both fiction and non-fiction about snow, along with
relating other personal experiences, and background
knowledge, to model different types of connections.
During the third reading, the students were able
to place their named self-stick strips on a page,
when they had made a connection. This was done after
the teacher had completed reading each page.
At
first we were worried about breaking up the story
and losing the experience of the story read as a
whole. Sipe’s findings suggested that;
the
children's responses…were so often of the moment and
in the moment, to hold the response to the end of the
reading would have been in many cases, to lose it" (2000,
272).
We
decided it would be the best procedure to break the
book into smaller parts. We also found that the discussion
and literary understanding increased when connections
were made during the reading.
After
the readings and class discussion, the children then
returned to their desks and discussed the part of
the story they had connected to as well as shared
their other connections with each other. In this
activity the students were seated in heterogeneous
groupings. At this time, a group of 45 students
were called up to the carpet area to discuss their
connections with the teacher. This procedure of calling
a small group up while others were working was very
familiar to our students as it is similar to guided
reading procedures we had already established in
both classes.
All
students wrote and drew a picture about their connections.
It was during this time that the teachers took field
notes on the discussion and other observations on
all the students as the participants were randomly
selected at the end of the observations.
The
second book we read aloud was My Best Friend Moved
Away. The procedure followed the same
as outlined with the first book; however, this book
was only read twice, once for modeling and once for
student participation. The teacher once again modeled
the procedure as well as discussed her connections.
The second time, the students were able to place
their three named self-stick strips in the book when
they made a connection. The discussion and writing
procedures were the same as the modeled lesson.
All
other books were read only once, with both teacher
and students placing their self-stick strips in the
book when a connection was made. The teacher then
discussed her connections, always trying to model
a variety of types of connections, before the students
went into small groups for their discussions.
After
the first book, Dawn’s students were given the choice
of how many self-stick strips they would like. Children
were encouraged to make as many connections as they
wanted, and it was stressed it was okay if self-stick
strips were left over at the end of the story. Some
children were quick to make lots of connections with
the book while others were not.
The
idea of letting the children choose the number of
self-stick strips was to try and get away from telling
them how many connections were needed in a book,
since making connections to a book is a very personal
thing. Children who said they were unable to come
up with a connection to a book were asked to retell
the story in their own words. This was done to prevent
reluctant writers from opting out of making connections
to the story in order to avoid writing.
Plot
Development
After
all data was collected and the eight students were
randomly chosen from each class, the teachers read
both the student’s written responses and their field
notes looking for patterns of how and what connections
the children made. We, now in our role as teacher-researchers,began
coding each student's responses into three types
of categories: text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world
(Harvey & Goudvis, 2000).
We
found that, from reading the eight books, the sixteen
children made 266 connections, Two hundred and forty-nine
were text-to-self, eleven were text-to-text, and
only six were text-to-world. We were not surprised
that the text-to-self connections would have the
most type of connections, as children of these age
groups are still somewhat egocentric. The number
of text-to-text and text-to-world connections disappointed
us since we had spent some time modeling these types
of connections and expected that children would then
make these connections.
We
believe, like Duffy et al (1986), Harvey and Goudvis
(2000), Pearson & Duke (2002), Short (1993),
Swartz (1999), and Trabasso (2002), that comprehension
improves through the teaching and modeling of explicit
comprehension strategies. Therefore, in our first
modeling lesson, as well as in our ‘regular’ teaching,
we thought we were referring to all three types of
connections equally. This may have been the problem:
We needed to spend more time modeling and explicitly
teaching text-to-text and text-to-world type of connections,
as these were new types of connections for the students
to make.
The children of this age find it easier to relate to something
that connects to their personal life, their schema.
Swartz (1990) also found that students needed a great
deal of modeling and explicit teaching before they
were able to connect with literature in a response
journal. After the completion of collecting data,
we were pleasantly surprised that the students in
our classes had begun to make text-to-text connections
on their own as this was an new way for children
to relate to stories.
The
books that received the most connections from the
students in both classes were The Recess Queen
(41),
I Want a Dog (37),
and My Best Friend Moved Away (35). The book that drew the fewest connections differed between the classes.
In the Grade One class, Chin Chang and the Dragon
Dance received the fewest connections even
though some children described the story as exciting
because the boy was able to dance at the end of the
story. In the Grade Two class, Wilfrid Gordon
McDonald Partridge received
the fewest connections, even though three students
liked it because it reminded them of their grandmothers.
It is interesting that in the Grade One class, Wilfrid
Gordon McDonald Partridge, received more connections because the children connected the story to
their grandparents’ lives.
When
we took a closer look at the written and oral responses
of the students’ connections in relationship to the
books read, eighty-three of the two hundred and sixty-one
connections were made to an event within the story. The
Keeping Quilt had
the fewest event connections in both classes. In
the Grade One class, both William’s Doll and Wilfrid
Gordon McDonald Partridge had the most connections made to an event.
Many
of the Grade One students connected to the basketball
and the train scene in William’s Doll. David
connected to building a train set with his dad from
the story. “My dad bought me a train. I made a track.
It makes a giant circle. It has ninety-nine pieces.
It has buildings and cars. It looks like a real town.”
Shared
memories of finding a bird's nest or visiting the
beach are some of the events students connected with
in Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. Jordan wrote “I went to the beach
and I played in the sea and my dad pretended to be
a shark.”
In
the Grade Two class, The Recess Queen, had the most connections made to an event. We felt that these
connections illustrated the importance of connecting
to what is known, i.e. a family setting or a school
setting. Of further interest, two of the text-to-world
connections were also connected to an event. Manpreet
connected the cleaning of her house in preparation
for Diwali to the cleaning in preparation for Chinese
New Year in Chin Chiang and the Dragon's Dance. Sanjay connected to the celebration
and use of fire works in the same book, to his extended
family’s celebration on New Year’s Eve.
The
next major connection made was to something in an
illustration that was not necessarily reflective
within the text being read to the class. Kiefer (1993)
believes, as we do, that the illustrations of a book
will allow children to enhance their listening comprehension
by filling in the parts of language that are unknown
to them (1993). Seventy connections were made in
this area. In the Grade One class, My Best Friend
Moved Away and The Keeping Quilt received the most connections in terms
of illustration, while in the Grade Two class it
was, I Want a Dog and The Recess Queen. A small skipping picture in The
Recess Queen reminded
Julie of a class skipping presentation and Manpreet
of skipping with her family.
Once
again, we felt that the setting, i.e., a school and
a neighbourhood, presented many opportunities for
the students to connect. We found when children were
having difficulty making sense of the story they
tended to connect with the illustrations in the story
as in the case of The Keeping Quilt. Many connections were made to the
picture of the Grandmother’s birthday party.
Connecting
to the theme of the book was also evident in several
other books. The theme of wanting something, as in I
Want a Dog and in William's Doll, as well as a friend moving away in My Best Friend
Moved Away produced
the most theme type connections in both classes.
All the children were able to connect with the ideas
of something that they really wanted and had to wait
some time for as well as the concept of lost friendships.
In I
Want a Dog,
Emma expands upon why she really wants a dog. “ This
story reminds me that I don’t like to play with
my little brother because when we play we always
fight because he is so angry. So I want a dog to
play with. But my mom said ‘No!’ So I can’t. But
when I grow up I will buy a dog.”
Charlie
connects to the theme of loosing a friend. “My good
friend is Angela. We shared snack with each other.
We pretended to fly on the swings together. I will
be sad for the rest of my life because she moved
away. She went.”
All
eight students in the Grade Two class made some connection
to a friend moving in the book My Best Friend
Moved Away. In Grade Two, Stephen, who was rather reluctant in sharing
his connections, connected to the theme of Tomie
dePaola’s book The Art Lesson.
Stephen wrote, “This reminds me of when I wanted
to be artist. And I still want to be an artist. I
haven’t told any one. I am never going to tell any
one. And at my house I do doodles. At home in my
kitchen I draw dinosaurs, Captain Underpants and
some other stuff.”
Twenty-seven
connections were made directly to a character.
Considerably fewer connections were
made directly to the character in the Grade One
class than in the Grade Two class, with only three
connections
coming in total from the Grade One class. Sally,
in Grade One did connect Mean Jean to a girl
she was having trouble with on the playground. “Diana
is mean. She started to be my friend but then
she got meaner and bossy. She said she would not
be
my friend.”
For
David, Mean Jean reinforced what a good friend he is. “I
am a good friend. I asked someone, can you play with
me?” Sanjay in the Grade Two class was able to connect
the main character of The Recess Queen to a boy character who is the king of the school playground from a Saturday
morning animated series.
While
most character connections were to the main character,
in the story My Best Friend Moved Away,
Bryan, new to Mary's class this year connected to
being the friend that moved away. Bryan came up quietly
before writing to say, “But Mrs. Smith, I’m the friend
that moved away.” He was assured that he could write
about that.
Five
of these character connections were related to emotion
in Chin Chiang and the Dragon's Dance and My Best Friend Moved Away. In the Grade One class, Nancy related
to both the words in the story and the emotion. She
related to Chin Chang’s feeling of being so scared
he wanted to melt in his shoes, to her own experience
of being a flower girl at a wedding. In reading the
first book, both Julie and Laura, Grade Two students,
connected to the sadness and loneliness Chin Chiang
felt. Julie connected to Chin Chiang's need to go
somewhere by himself, “When I’m sad, lonely or feeling
bad, I will go to my room and go to bed and cry until
my Mom comes….” Laura connected to where Chin Chiang
went when he felt sad, “Usually when I’m sad I like
to read and I usually like to read library books….”
Twenty-nine
connections were made to a specific word or phrase
within the text of a book. In the Grade One class,
after reading Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, one student wrote “My unicorn and
smooch are as ‘precious as gold’ because I can’t
sleep without them.”
In
the Grade Two class, of the sixteen connections made
in The Keeping Quilt, eight were made to a specific word.
The word ‘invite’ brought Huo-Shang and Julie to
recall a time when they invited someone to their
home. The words ‘rich cake’ reminded Laura of the “their
[her grandparent’s] cake was so rich.”
All
the books used in the Grade Two class were paperback
except for one, The Recess Queen.
One of Manpreet’s connections was to another book
she had at home that was also a hard cover book.
Harvey & Goudvis
state that
All kids bring a wealth of experience that we can build on
to enhance understanding even though much of the
prior knowledge may lie outside the realm of books.
(2000, 49)
The
differences between the books connected to in both
classes were somewhat surprising. For example Chin
Chang and the Dragon’s Dance received the fewest connections in
the Grade One class. In the Grade Two class it was Wilfred
Gordon McDonald Partridge.
Also the Grade One students made fewer connections
directly to a character than did the Grade Two students.
Our combined data showed similarities between the
two different grades and their social economic backgrounds
However, small differences between books and students’ responses
made us question the role of student’s experience
with a strategy, teacher’s presentation, class dynamics,
and personal preferences, as elements influencing
the connections made by students.
Hitching
Connections
We
found, as Swartz did, that as students discussed
their connections to the readings, their conversations
moved beyond focusing on their connections to the
text at hand into sharing stories about their experiences
and families, scaffolding ideas, and learning about
each other.
Students can “hitchhike” off one another to tell stories from
their lives. These stories not only reveal their
life experiences and ideas but also build a dimension
of who they are. (Swartz, 1999, 3)
Students
were often reminded of something while listening
to another student describing their connection. Bradley
and Sanjay were often heard saying that they got
a connection from what some character said. or that
some character reminded them of something.
Reluctant
connectors, who had only put one or two self-stick
slips on a book, would suddenly talk or remember
something that they could connect too when in conversation
with their peers. For example, when sharing connections to the story I Want
A Dog,
Emma—a student who did not often share her ideas—shared
her experiences of having a fish, but only after
other students in her group expressed that they wished
they had a fish. “I
have fish. I am not very good at feeding my fish.
The one big fish grabs all the food. My grandma helps
me feed the fish.”
All
the students were able to begin writing immediately
after their small group discussions. All the students
had at least one important thing to write about. Our
writing programs in both classes have increased the
amount of whole class oral discussion and small group
discussions before writing. All our students discovered
they had a story; they had something important to write
about.
We
believe that through the connections children make
we, as educators, are given insight into their prior
knowledge and life experiences. The connections that
the students made almost always made reference to
an interaction with their family. Many of the children
we teach are from immigrant or first generation families.
The extended family network is still in place and
is a major part of the children’s lives. Also many
children in our schools are not given the freedom
to play with their friends out of school hours; their
playmates at home are their siblings, cousins, grandparents
and/or parents. The importance of the children’s
families was not surprising but what was surprising
was the constant reference to family in connection
with the texts. As teachers we are often quick to
suggest ways for parents to interact and be part
of their child’s life. This study demonstrates that
they are.
Cultural Connections
Cultural
background influences how a reader interacts with
the text much in the same way as prior knowledge
(Narvaez, 2002). The interaction of cultural background
and prior knowledge enables a reader to make inferences
about unknown text and/or ideas that are explicitly
written by the author. (Meacham, 2001, Steffensen
et al., 1979). Meacham believes “that cultural connections,
particularly within the context of reading comprehension,
require cognitive processes nearly identical to those
Vygotsky associates with higher-order conceptual
development” (2001, 1). We were able to see the those
cultural connections in Manpreet’s and Sanjay’s,
(both Indo-Canadian), references to their family
celebrations in their connections to Chin Chiang
and the Dragon’s Dance. Of the four children of Asian descent
in the study, two children made a direct connection
to their family's New Year celebration. Our surprise
was that the cultural celebration did not make more
of an impact, especially when this book was presented
during the Lunar New Year. We asked ourselves if
the impact of the story was lost due to the story
being written in the first person while most of our
students could only have lived a similar experience
as an observer. The students often watch the festivities
but are not active participants in those festivities.
Gender Connections
Just
as cultural background is linked to prior knowledge,
gender is connected to cultural background. Gender
stereotypes are used to make inferences from text
that is read (Davies, 2003, Day, 1994). As gender
influences the inferences made while reading, gender
also influences how reading is approached (Day, 1994).
We did not find, as Davies and Day found, that the
connections the students made were influenced by
gender. The connections students made to all the
books gave us the impression that gender was not
a factor.
However,
when asked if they liked the books and why or why
not, three of the boys, who had made other connections
that were not based on gender, did not like William's
Doll since
it was a book about a boy wanting a doll. Sanjay
wrote, “because he was a boy and he wanted a doll
and it was for girls.”
Two
of the girls did not like the book; Amy “because
it was about a doll and I don't like to play with
dolls.” Manpreet said “It was not a great book.” When
asked to explain further, she said, “It was about
a boy and a doll.”
Alan
in Grade One seemed somewhat surprised that the character
in William’s Doll was a boy. Although he easily found
points to connect with in the story, his exclamation
of “You mean he was a boy?” would suggest that further
study needs to be done looking at how children relate
to character gender in non-traditional roles.
Data Reflections: Meeting Each Other Between Texts
Throughout
the collecting and reviewing of our data, new insights
and questions about our students as well as our teaching
practices arouse. We became much more aware of our
students’ lives outside of the classroom. We were
given, through their many connections, a glimpse
of their lives and the things that are important
to them. We became more aware of the students as
children within a community. For example in Mary’s
class she found out more about community events that
she had been unaware of, (such as block parties),
that many children in her class were attending.
As
more connections were made, we redirected some aspects
of the curriculum to fit the information that we
learned about our students. This was evident in Language
Arts and Social Studies. We also felt that the children
were given more insight into who we are and our lives.
This was especially true for Dawn who felt she shared
more about herself during this research then she
normally does, thus developing a more intimate relationship
with her students.
We
have also become more aware of the impact of what
we say has on our students and their learning. We
are listening more to our own words as we teach and
speak to our students. We are also more aware of
what our students are hearing. Our personal connections
spoke out much louder than our connections to text
and to the world even though we thought we equally
demonstrated each type of connection based on the
theme of the book. Did we emphasize the personal?
Did we make our personal connections more important,
more exciting? Is that the reason why our students
made more personal connections or is it just their
age and what is important to them?
Meaningful Connections
Questions
also came up about the meaningfulness of a connection.
Students were able to connect to stories whether
they later said they liked or disliked a story. Our
students often made connections that we suspect would
not assist in their comprehension of the text. In
some cases, however, when children were asked to
retell the story it was interesting how helpful their
seemingly abstract connection was in the retelling
of the story. Also, sometimes their connection to
the book did not seem like a connection, until we
asked the student more about their connection. We
would like to take more time to study the relationship
between making connections and reading comprehension.
Does making connections to text, improve reading
comprehension?
The
major question that continued to arise during data
collection was, what is a meaningful connection?
Is a meaningful connection a connection that adds
to the comprehension of the story or one that enhances
a student’s understanding of life? Or both?
A
further query that came out during our research was
the effect of oral discussion and modeling on comprehension.
The structure of our study led us to question which
strategy, oral discussion or modeling, had greater
influence on comprehension. We also questioned whether
both strategies needed to be used together to enhance
comprehension of the story.
Reluctant Connectors
During
the collecting of data, we became aware of a few
children who we described as reluctant connectors.
They seemed unwilling or at loss to make a connection.
A couple of the children seemed to value their self-stick
strip with their name on it. We had not used self-stick
strips before and felt that the novelty of these
could have been a factor. In the Grade One class,
investigation into why certain children were unable
to make a connection with a particular story resulted
in the following conversations with respect to the Recess
Queen.
Alan stated “But I have never met anyone that angry on the
playground.”
“I have never been as mean as Mean Jean,” said Susan.
For
some children not connecting with the major theme
of the story or character resulted in them not making
other connections. With some of the children, we
are still a bit unsure of why connections were not
made. Could it have been the sharing of something
very private, something very personal that held them
back? Could it have been shyness?
Stephen
was a very reluctant connector and yet while observing
his physical features, his eyes enlarging, the uplifting
of his body, during the reading of the story, Mary
knew connections were being made. During one small
group discussion after the reading of The Keeping
Quilt, Sanjay and Bryan were ‘hitchhiking’ off each other's connections
about grandmothers. Stephen kept quiet as the discussion
went back and forth between the two other boys. Sanjay
looked at Stephen and said, “Don’t you have any connections—about
your grandma —getting sick or anything?” Stephen
simply shook his head. The only connection Stephen
wrote about was that a name mentioned was the same
as his mom’s. Stephen was a silent connector. For
some reason he felt he needed to keep his connections
to himself, he was not ready to let us, his classmates
and his teacher, have a glimpse into him or his world.
Another
observation that requires further study is what makes
a reluctant connector? Is a reluctant connector someone
who has less experience with the connecting strategy,
less experience in oral discussion, shyness, lack
of English speaking skills, a sense of privacy, or
lack of life experiences?
Personal
preference did not seem to affect a child’s ability
to make a connection to a story. However, we have
asked ourselves, can personal preference increase
reading comprehension?
The
Next Chapter
As
primary educators, this study challenged us to investigate
our teaching practices regarding reading comprehension.
We have become more aware of the importance and the
need to not only model strategies but also to continually
reflect upon what it is being modeled. We have become
more aware that the message we think we are giving
our students, is not necessarily is the one that
they are hearing.
This
hidden curriculum appears not only during modeling
but also with the selection of books and other materials
in the classroom. For the purpose of this study,
having to explain our reasoning for book selection,
reinforced for us the importance of pre-reading materials
for gender issues, culture, illustrations, themes,
and personal preferences of the students.
We
are now giving our students more time to share their
thoughts, ideas, feelings, and life experiences in
connection to stories being read through oral discussion.
We are no longer afraid of losing the flow of the
story by allowing students to openly share their
thoughts during a story. In fact we are encouraging
such behaviour.
Just
as it is important for the children to share their
experiences, in order to create a safe, caring, risk
taking, classroom environment, we also feel it is
important for us to share our lives with the children.
As we share our life experiences with our students,
our students become more comfortable with sharing
their lives in class. We feel that this sharing has
brought a stronger community feeling within our classrooms.
Equally
important as the sharing within our classroom, is
the sharing between colleagues. Palmer refers to
teaching as “the most privatized of all the public
professions” (1998 142). We are aware of the isolation
we and other teacher feel within the profession.
The design of schools does not promote the sharing
and support that we believe is important. The support
and comfort of being able to share and bounce ideas
off one another confronted us with new ways to teach
reading comprehension. Discussions between the two
of us, challenged us to go beyond what we thought
was the obvious, and question many of our teaching
practices in all areas of the curriculum.
Although
this study has ended, we do not see this as the end
of our role as teacher-researchers. Instead it is
a beginning of further inquiry into the many possibilities
within the curriculum.
Those that dare to teach must never
cease to learn.
—Socrates
Reflections
One Year Later…
As we
look back a year later at our research, we continue
to believe in the importance of reflecting
on our daily practice as well as sharing our experiences
and philosophical thoughts with our colleagues
through our role as Early Literacy Coordinators
at each of our schools. Reflecting on ours and
our colleagues’ practices has been a basis for
many of our Early Literacy discussions. We also continue
to frequently share our experiences with one another
on an informal basis.
Creating
time to share our experiences and reflect on our
practices together seems to parallel our research
findings that our students also need time to share
and reflect their connections and thoughts of the
books they have read or heard.
As well,
educators need to be aware of the hidden curriculum
with the books and other materials used and how
they are presented in the classroom. Being
aware of the hidden curriculum has come to the
forefront as we purchase literacy materials for
our schools. We take greater care when selecting
materials so that both the content and illustrations
reflect the students in our schools. The pedagogical
importance of choosing our books and materials
carefully was highlighted in Dawn’s class when
a young girl from Mexico connected to a story Dawn
had read and began talking about her life in Mexico.
This was a very exciting time for Dawn and her
class as it was the first time this young girl
had shared her previous experiences.
The
connections children make to self, text, and world
continue to excite and stimulate us and the children
and enables the children to step in and become
part of the experience.
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